I posted this picture on Facebook of my cat sitting on my lap while playing a board game with my husband on a rainy night this week.

I was surprised both by the people who knew this game by sight and those who had no idea what game we were playing.

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If you don’t know, this game is Ticket to Ride. This is the Days of Wonder version as a map of the United States in 1900, but it comes in many versions – Europe, Nordic, India, Africa and many others.

The board shows train lines from city to city and the object is to 1) Claim routes between multiple cities on the map, 2) Claim specific routes between cities on your Destination Tickets and 3) Have the longest continuous train.

The game can be played with 2-5 players, although the less players, the easier the game is to play. Game play is an hour or less depending on how many people are playing.

How it’s Played

Players choose their train color and are dealt 4 Train Cards, which they do not show to the other players. The rest of the Train Cards are put facedown in a pile. The dealer will then turn over the top five cards from the deck for all players to see.

Players are also given three Destination Cards. They can choose to keep all three or turn in one of the cards. On each of the Destination Cards, there is a value at the bottom. Cities that are further apart have larger point values.

If you complete the train route from the two cities on the card, you get those points. If you don’t, those points will be subtracted from your score. Ugh!

I didn’t think that really mattered when my husband and I played since we only had two players, but he somehow managed to block all the routes going on one of the cities on my cards and I lost points. It’s part of the strategy of the game.

The Train cards come in 7 colors – yellow, red, orange, blue, green, black and white. There is also an engine train that serves as a wild card. 

There are spaces marked on the board that are colored and you must lay down all the train cars at that time. There are gray spaces that you can put any color train, but you must have all of the same color.

For example, you must play 3 pink train cards or 3 yellow train cards going from San Francisco to Los Angeles. But since there are 3 gray spaces between Los Angeles and Phoenix, you can use three pink train cards or three green train cards or three black train cards, etc.

When it is your turn, you determine where you want to go and decide what you can do with the cards in your hand. You can also choose two more Train Cards either from the five faceup cards or the facedown deck. If you choose from the faceup pile, replace those cards with others from the deck.

You may either put down pieces during your turn or hold onto what is in your hand to try to get more cards of the same color. If you choose to put trains down, you will put the cards you used in the discard pile. 

There is no set number of cards that you have in your hand.

Scoring

Scoring is determined by train length. One car train lengths are worth 1 point, but six car trains are worth 15 points. There is a scoring table right on the board. You can keep score as you go by using the colored tokens on the outside of the board, but we found it easier to add it all up at the end of the game.

When does the game end?

When one of the players has only 0, 1 or 2 trains left, the other players have one last turn. Then you add up your train points, any Destination ticket points and the player with the longest continuous train gets 10 extra points.

Do I recommend Ticket to Ride?

Absolutely. The learning curve is simple. The game is never the same. Ticket to Ride can be played with two players (so much better than TV!). It is great for family night with kids 8+.